YuGiOh! F10
by Disciple of Bob
Summary: An original series independent of the four canons. A world reduced to 3 cities run by 10 all-powerful corporations and their elite duelists, where the streets run rampant with dueling gangs vieing for supremacy, a world that needs a hero or several...
1. Prologue: A Brief History

And to think, **Duel Monsters** was once a children's card game.

It's almost impossible to imagine the concept these days. Children summoning demonic monsters and wielding powerful magic at their fingertips, never truly knowing how much fire they were playing with. Did no one notice the monsters inexplicably coming to life? The apocalypses that just happened to coincide with card tournaments? The rare cards that had to be kept under armed guard and ancient seals? The past must seem so absurd to those in the present.

The madmen at **Industrial Illusions** may have created the game, but it was **KaibaCorp** that started the world down the path to the present. The world scoffed when KaibaCorp switched from a manufacturer of military technology to a gaming company, but in reality KaibaCorp traded one brand of weapon for another that was far ahead of its time, pioneering the so-called 'holographic' technology with far more realism than possible as well as a computer system which could even read and play cards that were never programmed into it. It was these tools along with several convenient 'tournaments' that allowed the ambitious and the religious extremists to make their moves. The cards came to life, the gods of old were reborn, and the elite drew their cards.

KaibaCorp was only the beginning. Soon, the ambiguous yet undeniable power of Duel Monsters allowed select few to gain all the power and wealth they could imagine, destroying and consuming their competitors. Now the wealth and power is concentrated in the hands of the few mighty rulers who sit in their ivory towers counting their money and their cards. The ten massive corporations known as the **Fortune Ten** control every facet of life from food and water to health care to even law enforcement. These ten organizations are the result of years of hostile takeovers and corporate warfare with which card games were the battlefield of choice.

But all the power and wealth brought by these gladiator games doesn't change the fact that every ruler needs his masses. Corporations need consumers for the circle of life to continue. Thus we have the other end of the scale, the streets and shadows between the ivory towers. Even down here, card games rule the streets more than brute force could ever do so alone. Gangs and scavengers roam the streets and buildings abandoned by civilization constantly skirmishing for survival and supremacy. Those who don't submit to the rule of the gangs have it the worst, fending for themselves with little aid.

However, fate often favors such underdogs...


	2. The Man with the Dueling Gun

Tokyo Train Station was dead silent. No passengers waiting for trains, no conductors to direct their flow, nothing but the occasional chirping of crickets or the caws of scavenging crows. No one had caught a train here in three years because there hadn't been any. On top of that, the entire district was constantly fought over by the gangs, so one never knew if the area would suddenly erupt into chaos.

Today was an exception. Today, a short young man in a pressed black suit and slicked hair waited nervously at the station alone because he was assured the train would arrive at 5 o'clock sharp. The clock slowly chimed five times, miraculously still working after years of abandonment.

The young man, named Zander, pulled out a golden pocketwatch, comparing it with the crooked clock with broken glass high on the train station. "4:56," he read aloud from his own watch, "And the station's second hand is off by about a quarter of a beat as well. Simply unacceptable." Zander shook his head in disdain and placed his watch neatly back in his jacket pocket. Withdrawing a comb, he inspected his reflection in a nearby window. Running a comb through his slicked back hair, Zander adjusted his suit to perfection. Just because one lived in the slums of a dystopian city didn't mean one couldn't look one's best.

Still, the station was in ruins with half the building completely demolished, but one train track still ran cleanly through. He sincerely doubted any train would actually show, as it'd be the first in three years, but all the same he waited.

* * *

><p>"We're sorry, but the <strong>KC Express<strong> is experiencing some minor technical difficulties. Our maintenance staff is currently en route to address and correct the situation. We thank you for your patience and wish you a pleasant journey," the feminine robotic voice repeated for the umpteenth time with just as much sincerity as the last announcement.

"I'm sure," grumbled back the 17-year old as he gathered his luggage, only a small knapsack and a briefcase. The minor technical difficulties the train's robotic voice referred to was the lack of any remaining track. Weather and rust had eroded away the rails for miles ahead until all that was left was a faint path to follow. Fortunately, the Tokyo skyline was in sight several miles away, but it did mean leaving the air-conditioned comfort of the train car and hoofing it the rest of the way across the barren wasteland. "The exercise couldn't hurt I guess," he sighed as he put on a pair of silver-lined sunglasses, "I just wish I was wearing something less warm." He dusted off the wrinkled blue coat of his uniform. He had to wear whatever clothes he couldn't fit in his pack, which unfortunately consisted of his only outfit, and it was not heat-friendly. The trek ahead would be long, hot, and dull, and one thing was for certain: he was definitely going to be late.

* * *

><p><em>Hours later…<em>

At the train station, Zander stared at the ceiling counting the remaining bricks and tiles, as well as estimating just how much it would have taken to rebuild and renovate this place, alternating his idle thoughts while checking his watch. It now read 6:54 PM and the clock chimed seven times, making the young man wince at its inaccuracy. "Two minutes faster than before. No wonder this place fell apart. If the clock can't even be expected to run on time, how on earth could they get the trains to?"

As he was just about to give and go home, a sudden noise startled him. Zander looked up to see nothing but the growing shadows from the setting sun. This was definitely not the part of town to be in at night. The eerie quiet started to play his nerves as he gradually made his way towards the exit.

That's when something jumped out of the shadows, and before Zander could see what it was, a conk on the head turned the rest of the world to black.

When Zander awoke, he was tied to a nearby pole, the filthily-dressed thug nearby. The familiar weight on his chest told him the watch was still there, but as he looked up the young man saw his mugger rifling through the deck of Zander's freshly stolen cards. "That makes the third time I've been mugged this week," sighed Zander, "I know you probably won't listen, but you really should just give me back my cards and get out of here. If my sister finds out about this, she'll probably break your legs."

The thug stared back at the surprisingly nonchalant mugging victim and laughed, "Your sister's going to come beat me up? Really? That's the best you've got, kid? You could at least say you're the son of an **Enforcer** or something threatening." The thug went back to looking through the deck. "You're certainly calm. That's good. Last few people I worked spent the whole time screaming and made it really hard to work."

"Glad to assist in your robbing me," Zander smiled, "but seriously, I don't blame you for being a petty criminal. Those are just the times we live in, but if you don't back off my sister _will_ kick your ass."

The thug pulled out a concealed pistol from his jacket and pointed it at Zander, "I could always just shoot you here."

Zander rolled his eyes, unfazed by the gun. "Well then she'd kill you."

"I could put a bullet in your head right now, and no one would ever know what happened. The Enforcers don't even come around here. Just be grateful all I'm taking is your cards. Guy in a rich-looking suit like that I bet you could probably get another deck chock-full of rare cards in no time. Let me guess, you work for one of the **Fortune Ten**?" the thug guessed, looking over his victim's neat, clean clothes.

"I wish," Zander scoffed. "I just run a shop down on… On second thought, maybe I better not tell the guy mugging me where my place of business is."

"Wise choice." A loud clattering in the distance caused the mugger to whip his gun around, looking for the source. "Who's there?"

Climbing up from the track onto the platform was a young man hauling a knapsack, a briefcase, and a blue coat over his shoulder. Exhausted from the hike across the wasteland, the young man nearly collapsed on the platform. "Aw, man. After three years, I really thought I could be on time for once. What a crap first impression, huh?"

"First impressions are only for people you've never met before," Zander calmly replied as if he wasn't being held at gunpoint.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," the young man dusted himself off and walked towards the pair, "Speaking of which, who's this guy? I don't think we've met. New friend of yours?"

"Oh yeah, me and card-thief Ponzi here are best of friends. That's why he stole all my cards and has me at gunpoint," Zander said deadpan. "But seriously, you should probably get out of here before he mugs you too." The mugger looked at his would-be victim in annoyance as he hadn't been planning on giving out his name. "What? You didn't think you were that anonymous, did you?"

"Mouthy little brat, aren't you? Well, since we're apparently all such good friends here," Ponzi grunted as he pulled out a second pistol, raising it at the newcomer, "How about you be a pal and lend me a few cards. Say... all of them?"

The young man stared down the barrel of the pistol and sighed, "So that's how it is. Not the welcome home I was expecting. All right, you've got a deal."

"What? Really?" It wasn't quite the reaction Ponzi was expecting, but then again today was a day of firsts.

"That is," the young man dropped his baggage and pulled a deck box, "if you can beat me in a duel."

"Don't do it, he's got my deck," Zander tried to warn.

"All the more reason for me to win it back from him," the young man replied smiling.

"That's not what I-"

"I accept!" Ponzi holstered his guns and took out his duel disk, a battered, old, second-hand model.

"Oh well. Too late. Sorry," Zander groaned.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Pull out your duel disk!"

"I would," the young man said sheepishly, "but I don't have a duel disk."

"Wh-what?" Ponzi stared in confusion, "Heh, challenging someone to a duel without a duel disk. Are you dense? That just means I win by default!"

"Let me be clear," the young man quickly reached behind him and unholstered what looked to be an oversized, stylized pistol, "I don't have a duel 'disk,' per se, just this beauty I picked up a while ago."

Ponzi stared at the giant firearm, his own pistols already holstered, "H-hey! I didn't know this was that type of duel!"

"It's not a real gun. Just a sort of dueling machine rigged up to look like a gun. A **Duel Gun** if you will. See? Monsters go on the left side, spell and trap cards go on the right. Don't worry, it doesn't give me any special advantages or anything like that," the young man explained as he showed off the basic mechanics of his device.

"That's…" Ponzi stood flabbergasted at the device. He'd never seen anything like it before. It must've been rare, and therefore valuable. "That's a fine piece of work. I wonder how much I'll be able to sell it for once I beat you."

"A shame you'll never find out," the young man smiled as both the duel disc and the duel gun flared to life.

* * *

><p>High above the planet earth in lower orbit, a solitary satellite overlooked the planet below, hovering silently.<p>

Suddenly, lights flared on the satellite flared to life as a robotic voice started speaking to no one…

"**Kaiba Corporation** Satellite Online…

Simultaneous duel equipment activation detected…

Coordinates: 35.40.51.N-139.46.01.E…

Duel registry confirmed….

Contacting **Commedia** network…

Network connection established. Now broadcasting…

Required safety inhibitor level calculated…

Now initiating inhibitors…

Now activating holographic interface…

Duel commencing…"

The satellite glowed brighter as it transmitted its signal to the planet below…

* * *

><p>All around the train station, the air itself shimmered as the holographic field overlaid the entire area. Now every last bit of the desolate train station was a slightly more vibrant tone than before, as if someone had upped the contrast on the entire building.<p>

"DUEL!" The young man and Ponzi shouted as the displays lit up.

Life Points: 4000

Life Points: 4000

The clip of the young man's duel gun handed him his first cards. "I'll go first. I play the spell card **Cost Down**! This lowers the level of a monster in my hand by 2, making it easier to summon." As the green spell card flared to life, indistinguishable from the rest of reality, two beams of light shot out of the card and back to the young man's hand. "Now I'll summon **Bounty Hunter Zero**!" The 6-star monster's card flared to life as the two rays from Cost Down struck the card itself and eliminated two of the stars, making it summonable. The figure stepped out of the card, his hard gunmetal boots clacking against the ground with terrifying realism, his black and red trenchcoat flowing realistically in the air, his black, wide –brimmed hat and red scarf covering almost all of the figure's face except for two deep, piercing eyes. The figure quickly unholstered two giant, futuristic pistols and pointed them at his opponent, waiting. (2500/2000) "And with that I'll end my turn."

Ponzi drew his cards from the duel disk, eyeing each of the cards carefully since this was his first time using the deck. "You've got a nice deck here, kid. I'll enjoy using it to crush your friend." He smiled as he looked over his hand. "Hm… This card looks promising. I summon **Custom Battleforged** in attack mode!" The monster that shimmered into existence on Ponzi's field was a humanoid android with a skeletal frame, looking half-finished. (1500/1500)

"Oh wow, I remember that card from way back when. That's the one that can use any equip card regardless of normal requirements, right?" the young man reminisced.

Zander glared at his supposed rescuer, "And you told him that why?"

"Heh, thanks for the tip. That'll make things much easier. I equip the spell card **Buster Rancher**!" The giant cannon that shimmered into existence was larger than the rest of the field combined. In no way should it have been usable by anything that wasn't the size of a skyscraper. "Normally this thing can only be equipped to a monster with 500 or less attack, but thanks to that ability you told me about, that's no longer a problem, and whenever a monster equipped with Buster Rancher battles a monster with 2500 or more attack power, the equipped monster's attack is increased by 2500, raising Custom Battleforged's attack to 4000!" Armor plates matching the color and the design of the giant weapon grew on the android's arm as robotic tendrils snaked out of Custom Battleforged's arm and into the giant gun. The display beeped marking the change in attack.

(4500/1500)

Ponzi looked at the display in confusion. He didn't mind the extra 500 at all, but he wasn't sure where his math went wrong.

"You don't know?" the young man offered, "His other ability is that for every equip card attached to him, Custom Battleforged gains an additional 500 attack power."

"Stop giving him tips!" Zander shouted.

"What? He should know everything about what he's playing with. Otherwise, how is it fair?"

Zander banged his head against the pole he was tied to in frustration.

"Mighty generous of you. Maybe I'll only take the cards of yours that I like. But first, I'll also play the equip spell card **Mage Power**!" Some more bits of armor plating appeared on the robot, these a different color than the first and covered in magical runes. The runes then spread to cover the rest of the robot as well as parts of the cannon. "This increases the equipped monster by 500 times the number of spell and trap cards on my side of the field. That plus Custom Battleforged's own ability raises his attack by an additional 1500!" (6000/1500)

"Now, ATTACK!" The turbines of the giant weapon hummed as they fired up, the runes glowing along with them as a magic circle traced itself in the air in front of the cannon's barrel. Finally, the energy buildup exploded at the gun-toting warrior, lighting up the whole field with a violent explosion of energy augmented by magical runes, leaving nothing but a smoking crater behind. The crater itself was a hologram of course, but the detail made it impossible to tell there wasn't a giant hole in the ground.

Remaining Life Points: 500

"Well, so much for your big… what?" Just as Ponzi was about to do his victory dance, a shadow out of the corner of his eye caused him to look up, where he saw Bounty Hunter Zero still in one piece, in fact falling to the ground and landing on his feet, no worse for wear than before.

The young man smirked, "Bounty Hunter Zero has his own special abilities too you know. For example, he can't be destroyed in battle by any monster with 3000 or more attack!"

"Impressive. It'll go great with the rest of my latest haul. Because either way, it won't matter what monsters you have out! You'll never be able to top my monster's attack!" Ponzi boasted.

"I don't need to," laughed the young man. Ponzi stood confounded at the young man's remark. "What? You thought I gave you all those tips on accident?"

Ponzi's eyes widened, "You're bluffing."

"I don't need to bluff! I set a face-down monster, and then I play the spell card **Enemy Controller**!" The giant brown back of a card appeared on his field and behind it another spell card emerged, this one with the picture of a video game controller.

"OH F-" .

"I'm guessing for once you actually know what this card does. All I have to do is tribute one monster, namely my face-down, and I can take control of one monster on your side of the field until the end of the turn." The brown card shimmered out of existence and became a small controller in the young man's hand. Despite the fact that this was a hologram, he could hold and feel the controller in his hand and push its buttons. Doing so, suddenly the robot on his opponent's field stood up and leapt to the young man's side of the field, turning against its controller but leaving the giant cannon behind. "Sure, Custom Battleforged won't get the attack bonus from Buster Rancher since he's launching a direct attack, but between Mage Power and his own abilities that puts him at 3500! Now, let's get some retribution for this asshole stealing you away from Zander!" Instead of the giant cannon, the rune-encrusted armor plates on the android morphed again, engulfing its arm and changing it into a cannon of its own. The android pointed its fresh arm cannon directly at the defenseless card thief and fired a burst of energy. Despite it all being holographic the force of the blast knocked Ponzi off his feet and into the wall behind him.

Ponzi: 500 LP

"And I still have Bounty Hunter Zero! Now finish him off!" The Bounty Hunter in the trenchcoat twirled both gigantic pistols and launched barrage of gunfire at Ponzi, raining a hail of bullets on him. Each bullet felt completely real, like he'd actually been shot, even though when Bounty Hunter Zero finally ceased, there wasn't a scratch on the card thief. The pain was real, and so was the despair and fear that came with losing, but that was it.

Ponzi: 0 LP

The card thief collapsed onto the ground, shaken and exhausted, "Who… who are you?"

The young man walked up and confidently smiled down at his opponent. "The name's **Konjo**. You could say I'm the new sheriff in town." Konjo's Duel Gun finally powered down as he twirled it back into its holster. "You're going to return everything you stole, and then I don't want to see your face again."

"Okay, I'm gone, I'm gone!" Ponzi dropped his duel disk and all of the cards he had on his person, including Zander's deck, and ran off as quickly as possible.

Zander, having finally managed to untie himself, yelled out after the fleeing thief, "Next time, try earning your own cards legitimately instead of stealing them! Like buying them from my store on Domino Street!"

Konjo stared back at his friend, "You're planning on selling to the guy who tried to mug you?"

"Hey, a customer is a customer, and he's probably going to need to replace his cards soon. As long as they pay legitimately, I don't discriminate. Though I might charge him some extra handling fees for the way he handled ma and my cards. By the way, nice to see you, Konjo, though you shouldn't go sticking your neck out like that if you want to keep your cards in this town," said Zander as he dusted himself off and righted his suit.

"Hey, come on, I just saved your cards!" said an indignant Konjo.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful, but I was hardly in any danger. I've already been mugged twice this week, and both of the thugs are paralyzed from the waist down in the hospital thanks to Sis."

Nostalgic images of brutality flashed through Konjo's mind, "How is Zoe? Is she still mad at me?"

"Let's put it this way. Those guys in the hospital? Love taps compared to what she'll probably do to you," Zander warned.

Konjo sighed, briefly considering just hiding back out in the desert for a while, "Let's get this over with then." Konjo and Zander left the train station and headed to what was certain to be an interesting welcome-home party.

_To be continued…_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes: <strong>The first real chapter of my second major fanfiction. A few things about this series. I have the setting more fleshed out than the actual story. There's only so much exposition I feel like putting per chapter. This is filed under the Yu-Gi-Oh! section because it is supposed to be independent of GX, 5D's, and ZEXAL. You'll eventually see Synchro Monsters, Exceed Monsters, and maybe even a riding duel or two (I promise the latter will occur very rarely if at all), but you won't see anything like Neos, the Crimson Dragon, or any of those particular plot elements.

The Fortune Ten in case it wasn't clear, are 10 major corporations, each of which controls a different facet of life. The only one that's in the canon is KaibaCorp, the other nine are all original in function and in personnel despite any similarities you might find. With the sheer volume of character potential, I may eventually have to take OC's, but not at the moment. I'll let you know if I do start taking OC's though.

The only two original cards here are **Bounty Hunter Zero** and **Custom Battleforged**. Each chapter I'll let you know of any new original cards and, unless they have an effect that hasn't been revealed and I'm saving for a later chapter, the description of each card.

**Bounty Hunter Zero** - 6 DARK/Warrior 2500/2000 - This card cannot be destroyed by a monster with 3000 or more ATK. When this card destroys a monster as a result of battle, draw a card.

**Custom**** Battleforged** - 4 EARTH/Machine 1500/1500 - This card can use any equip cards regardless of the equip card's normal restriction. This card gains 500 ATK for every Equip card attached to him.


End file.
